Page 49 of Rising Heat

His eyebrows knit together.

“You don’t have to apologize for being surprised there’s a six-foot-three stranger under your sink.”

I stop, the words still sitting uselessly on the tip of my tongue. That wasn’t the response I was expecting. I look at him. The tattoo winding beneath his sleeve, wrench loose in one hand. The way his attention never wavers even when his face gives almost nothing away.

His gaze drifts past me into the living room. The look only lasts a second, but it feels like he’s seeing the apartment for the first time and realizing someone actually lives here now.

“Place looks good.”

“Thanks.”

He nods and starts toward the living room before coming to a stop. It takes me a second to realize I’m still standing in the doorway.

His eyebrow lifts.

“Oh.”

Heat burns the back of my neck as he turns slightly to pass through the narrow space between us, one shoulder brushing the doorframe as he slips into the bedroom and back out the French doors.

“You got a real wrench?” he calls over his shoulder.

“Yes,” I call back trailing a few feet behind him.

“Use that next time you decide to arm-wrestle your faucet. Or suspect someone of breaking and entering.”

“I did not⁠—”

He stops near the kitchen and levels me with a look that suggests he’s already made up his mind on the subject.

“You did.”

I stomp toward him, stopping close enough that I have to tilt my head up to see his face.

“I watched a tutorial.”

“That explains a lot.”

“Do you talk to everybody like this or am I getting special treatment?”

He pauses at the front door and looks at me, the corner of his jaw tightening before smoothing out again.

“Lock your door, Darcy.”

“What?”

He nods toward the deadbolt.

“You forget sometimes.”

“How do you know that?”

His emerald eyes hold mine for a second.

“Same reason I knew about the drain.”

A moment later the door is shutting behind him, leaving me standing in the middle of my apartment alone, wooden spoon still in hand and my head spinning from whatever the hell that was.

CHAPTER EIGHT